Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 21:09:40 -0400
From: Karen Weaver <[log in to unmask]>
To: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: People, Information, Technology (fwd) & Cleveland OH

Hadn't Suzanne Briet also learned from American librarians such as
Rose L. Vormelker (1895-1994) who had created & managed the Business
Information Center of the Cleveland Public Library in Ohio from 1928 -
1955.  Otlet didnt visit the US until late in his life, however
American librarians were in Europe over many many years during the
19th century...

I think that "documentation" is also just a translation of something
that had already existed in the US where many from Europe came to
learn from American librarians -especially those of the special
libraries association movement.   Paul Otlet came to the US fairly
late in his life.

Its an interesting history for sure....just some other thoughts on this topic
Cheers, Karen Weaver

On 9/9/13, Gretchen Whitney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2013 01:45:20 -0400
> From: Marcia J. Bates <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: People, Information, Technology
>
> To Gretchen et al.:
>
> Comments on the discussion to this point:
>
> Documentation of technical specifications is one use of the term, but not
> the
> use that was meant.  Documentation was a movement, most notably associated
> with
> Suzanne Briet (see description at Michael Buckland's website).  The idea was
> to
> collect and manage (and theorize about) the documentation of scientific and
>
> related activities--kind of a more intensive technical special
> librarianship.
>
> Should be people, not users, because the research on information behavior or
>
> practices is about all people, not just people who "use" a particular
> institution.
>
> Should be "Information technology," not just "technology."  A shovel, an
> arrow,
> an electrical transformer--these are all technologies, but are not
> information
> technologies.
>
> Regarding ASIST: The "and technology" is not the latest change. Sounds like
> you
> didn't notice that ASIST changed its name to Association for Information
> Science and Technology.
>
> I was one of the ones talking up the three-part Venn diagram idea as long
> ago
> as the ASIST mid-year conference in Portland, Oregon--1991 or 1992?  Dan
> Atkins
> of Michigan pushed it al lot, and I don't know how many other people in the
>
> iSchool world.
>
> However, now that the concept has become so popular at iSchools and
> iConferences, I think we are at risk of forgetting that the key term in the
>
> threesome is "information."  That, after all, is the one of those three
> terms
> of the Venn diagram that appears in the name of the field "information
> science."  A lot  of other fields deal with people and with information
> technology.   Only ours deals with information collection, storage,
> organization, retrieval, and use, as well as information management and
> information policy.   Information is so pervasive in society that even we
> forget sometimes that the core of understanding of its role in people's
> lives
> and in information institutions still resides in our field.
>
> Please also see my speech, given at the ALISE, 2012 conference, which is
> posted
> at my website, titled "The Information Professions: Knowledge, Memory,
> Heritage."
> http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/pdf/InfoProfessions.pdf I
>
> talk a lot in there about the several information disciplines and what
> characterizes them.
>
> Marcia
> --
> Marcia J. Bates, Ph.D.
> Professor Emerita
> Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
> Editor, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd Ed.
> Department of Information Studies
> Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
> University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
> Los Angeles, CA 90095-1520 USA
> Tel: 510-526-1049
> Web: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/

------------
Karen Weaver MLS
Digital Projects Assistant , Library Systems
Duquesne University, Gumberg Library
600 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15282
Email: [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]